Blessed are the Persecuted

The beatitudes are the pathway to God’s heart. These beautiful attitudes begin with blessed are the poor in spirit. When we realize our poverty of spirit God can fill us with his spirit. Blessed are those who mourn over their sin nature for they will be comforted with the comfort of God’s spirit. Those who are hungry and thirst after righteousness shall be filled…. for Jesus said, I am the fountain of living water and I am the bread of life. Blessed are the meek for their heart is prepared to receive the Word of God. Blessed are the merciful… for loving kindness and tender mercy is the nature of God himself. Blessed are the pure in heart… Those whom God has purified through the trials and tribulations to reveal his true character reflected in us. Then blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God. They have accepted Jesus Christ the prince of peace and have been given the ministry of reconciliation and have been committed the word of reconciliation. Peace is the result of reconciliation through Jesus Christ, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Reconciliation connects our heart with God’s heart.

The final beatitude is blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for great is their reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. Persecution results from the darkness of the fallen world. The darkness hates the light of Jesus Christ. According to John 1, the light came into the world through Jesus Christ and the world rejected the light. However, those who accept that Jesus is Lord reflect the light of Christ. Mark 5 says, Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.

In the early Christian church, the Jews ostracized the followers of “that way” Jesus Christ. Christ followers were cast out of the temple and the synagogue. They were separated from their families and former friends. In Philippians 1, Paul said that in having received the gift of Holy Spirit, followers of Christ would suffer tribulation. You cannot love the things of this world so much that you compromise your love for God, his word and his righteousness. When we love God above all and give up the rights to ourselves, then we shall know the freedom we have in Christ. Jesus said, if you continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

The issue is to stand as a disciplined follower of Jesus Christ. Then when the world turns its back on the truth of the Word of God we will stand by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When the world persecutes us and rails slanderous accusations against the truth, we can rest in the assurance that God will deliver us from evil… either in this life or the next.

In the First Century, Nero burned down the city of Rome to rebuild it as a monument to his own ego and ultimate authority. When the people were in an uproar for the burning of Rome, Nero blamed it on the Christians. He turned their hearts against the followers of Christ and tortured them. Then he set their bodies on fire to light the avenues leading into Rome.

The history of the Church has been paved with the blood of the martyrs. They praised God singing on their way to be tortured and killed in the name of their Lord Jesus Christ. Regardless of evil men’s attempts to stamp out Christianity, God keeps watch over his people who stand as witnesses to the fulfillment of his promises. When Christians are persecuted for standing for truth, men will see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. God will open the eyes of those he’s called so that they can witness the truth for which his Christians stand… As Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

When we stand as citizens of Heaven for the gospel of God’s grace then our Heavenly Father will honor our stand for truth and righteousness. The godless doctrines of communism in the guise of liberal social democracy are opposed to the godly truth upon which our country was founded as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and Justice for all.

The priority of the devil’s doctrines of godlessness is to stamp out the liberties wherewith Christ has set us free…. Their purpose is to advance the devil’s mission to separate American citizens from their unalienable God-given rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness based on godly virtue. Ultimately the devil’s purpose is to separate our hearts from God’s heart.

When we confess Jesus is Lord, we count our own life no longer our own. As Christians our life is hid with Christ in God in this earthly life and also in the next. The governments of the world will come to naught. Nations come and go…. According to Isaiah 40 the nations are but a drop in the bucket.

Therefore God’s promise is that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The devil’s poison arrows and flaming darts are the doctrines of devils. The devil and his minions accuse Christians of being close minded, intolerant, hypocritical, and holier than thou. The devil takes the word of God and twists it into lies to set hearts and minds against God, his word, his prophets, and ministers of His word.

Even though we hold dual citizenship as citizens of heaven and citizens of the United States, we are Christians first and Americans second. Having been born again of God’s spirit we are sons of God and our allegiance is to our Father and the country of our new birth in heaven. As Christians not only are we citizens of heaven, but our Father has given us a mission and an assignment… we have been commissioned, equipped, empowered,and enabled by God as his ambassadors. An ambassador is the highest ranking official sent by his Lord to deliver a peace treaty to a foreign land. Our calling as Ambassadors for Christ is the ministry of reconciliation to deliver the pace treaty, the word of reconciliation from Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. To reconcile is to join together that which has been separated. Our mission and our commission is to reconcile God’s people back to God, thereby bringing peace with God. Therefore, we pray you in Christ’s name, be ye reconciled to God. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Romans says, recompense to no man evil for evil. Therefore let not your good be evil spoken of. When we stand up for Jesus Christ and the truth of His word, Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”

According to 2 Corinthians 4:5-10, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”

Sam Parsons ministered in nursing homes. He went into the room of an elderly faithful Christian lady who was paralyzed from the neck down. She was bed ridden and could not move her arms or legs. When Sam arrived to sing for her, her face lit up with the joy of the Lord. Sam asked her, how are you so joyful in your pain and suffering? She used a chopstick in between her lips to point to the letters on a board and spelled out 2 Cor. 4:17. This verse says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Sam thought to himself, I’m not ministering to her. She’s ministering to me. As she approached the end of this life on earth, she understood the meaning of Jesus’ beautiful attitudes…. to glorify our father in this life and the next…. that Blessed are they who through the trials and affliction of this life, faithfully witness God’s beatitudes through persecution, reviling, and evil speaking, for Jesus said, great is your reward in heaven…

… That as witnesses to our Father’s love and mercy, we may live eternally to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Salt of the Earth

Many American Christians are vulnerable to the worldly philosophies of secular humanism, materialism, and hedonism. Gallop in “The Search for Faith in America” said, never before has the gospel of Christ made such inroads yet made such little impact on the culture and the ways people live. Jesus said, people will forsake true righteousness and instead choose the pleasures of the world over the calling of God. Their lust for material things would prevent them from becoming disciplined followers of Jesus Christ. Weak faith would cause Christians to be ashamed of the Gospel of Chrsit and this would prevent God from continuing to bless their land. The sinful lifestyle of so-called Christians would discourage many from seeking the true light of Christ. Francis Schaeffer cited the crumbling moral foundations of the media, the government and education. He said Americans would prefer to seek material things and so-called happiness instead of the things of God. In short, it will get tougher and tougher to be a Christian. This is an excerpt from the book “Idol Signs” coauthored by Barna and McKay in 1985.

The ways of the world are upside down from the ways of the beatitudes… the beautiful attitudes of Jesus Christ. The values of the world are paradoxical to the values of our Heavenly Father. The world emphasizes self confidence, self preservation, self actualization and self aggrandizement…. with the emphasis on self. These selfish priorities appeal to pride and self sufficiency. They are the tools the devil uses to turn men’s hearts away from seeking God and His righteousness through Jesus’ sacrifice for sin on our behalf. However, the beatitudes emphasize humility in mourning over sin and poverty of the Holy Spirit. These blessed attitudes prioritize meekness to receive God’s instruction in righteousness… to be blessed through the filling of the spirit of Christ in us for Jesus said, I am the bread of life and the fountain of living waters.

Those who embrace Jesus’ beatitudes are his peace makers who deliver a peace treaty from the kingdom of heaven to reconcile with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ those whom God has called.

After Jesus taught the beatitudes he said, ye are the salt of the earth. Salt is a preservative that keeps food fresh by preventing decay and corruption. Salt represents truth. Salt preserves from degradation, decomposition and decay. The truth of word of God makes us free from the rottenness of the world. Jesus said, If you continue in my Word ye shall be my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Like salt, the truth of the word of God is the antiseptic and disinfectant to free Christ followers from the world’s corruption.

Recently there has been an emphasis on mental illness that has proliferated as our culture and society has turned its back on the truth of the word of God. The battle field is in the mind. As Americans have forsaken and forgotten true liberty in Christ, our country is increasingly succumbing to the consequences of sin that holds men captive. Without the armor of God, there is no soundness of mind… For God has not given us (who are born again of God’s spirt) a spirit of fear, but of power, or love, and of a sound mind.

The philosophies of this world lead to hopelessness and meaninglessness…. without God and without hope in a world of darkness. Jesus Christ came to give sight to those born spiritually blind. It used to be that there were standards for truth. There was no question regarding “sexual identity.” Until recently the prevailing standard was that a person was either male or female. Today however, many in our culture embrace the secular teaching that insists that gender is “fluid” and can change at the whim of the individual. There is a proliferation of confusion regarding sexual identity and this confusion divides and pits those who believe the truth of the Word of God from the so-called politically correct who insist that truth is relative to the individual’s preference. Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. He is the standard for truth and life worth living. He said, I am the way the truth and the life… no man cometh to the Father except by me.

Without the truth of the Word of God and Jesus Christ, the word of God made manifest, the world will sink into degradation, decay and self-destruction. Any system of order will degrade, disintegrate, and fall apart without the infusion of power directed by God’s will and purpose… He is the one who directs, orchestrates, manages, and sustains all things according to the purpose of His Sovereign will. When we who believe in the truth of His word delight in his word and align our hearts with his heart, then it is God that works in us and through us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Genesis 6 says that the spirit of God will not always strive with man. God has set up His word as his righteous standard. God is no respecter of persons. He is, however, a respecter of His word. His laws are intended to protect those who choose to enter into fellowship with Him and live under the canopy of His blessings… under the shadow of the almighty… under the Banner of God. However, when God’s people commit two evils by forsaking Him, the fountain of living waters and hewing out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water, left to their own devices they will not break God’s law… they will break themselves upon the pillar and ground of the truth by leaving of the canopy of God’s protection.

Those whom God has called will be blessed when they witness the truth of the Word of God… when they taste and see the love of God and the truth manifest in the lives of Christians who speak and live the savor and salt of God’s truth. As the salt of the earth, we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ and him crucified…. to them that are called we are the savor, the sweet smelling fragrance of salvation. But to those who do not believe, the followers of Christ are the stench of death unto death.

To accept Jesus as Lord means to forsake self serving pride. This is the root of the problem with the rich young ruler who approached Jesus and said, “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus knew what was in the heart of man so he replied, “Why do you call me good? There is none good (in the flesh). Only God himself is good.” Jesus continued, “You know the law: Do not commit murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother… in other words, love your neighbor as yourself.” The young ruler said filled with pride, “These things I have done since my youth.” Then Jesus said, “One thing you lack. Sell all your goods and give the proceeds to the poor. Then come and follow me.” The young man went away sorrowful, for he had great material wealth. The rich young ruler may have kept part of the Ten Commandments, but he did not honor the first of the ten commandments… Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. The gods he worshipped were his material possessions and his own self serving pride. According to the Aramaic text, this verse says, “Thou shalt have no other gods between your face and my face.” He had the wrong gods that came between him and the one true God. The first and great commandment is to love God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength. When we do the first commandment, the other nine…. will fall in line. Why? Because the love of God covers a multitude of sins.

The problem with the church is “casual Christians.” A casual Christian follows Christ only when it’s convenient, easy, and without heartache, trials and tribulations. Casual Christians are casualties in the spiritual battle. Jesus said you have to count the cost of following me. The last of the beatitudes says, blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for great is your reward in heaven.

There is a difference between Jesus of Orange County and Jesus or Nazareth. Jesus of Orange County is a broad way that leads to destruction. Jesus of Nazareth is the narrow way through the narrow gate that leads to eternal life. Jesus of the OC says there is no cost to follow me. Jesus of Nazareth says count the cost, take up your cross daily and follow me. Jesus of the OC says you can come on your own terms. Jesus of Nazareth says, come on God’s terms. His terms are unilateral and non-negotiable according to the Word of God. Jesus of the OC says obey when it’s convenient. Jesus of Nazareth says obey no matter what. Jesus of the OC says, make decisions based on fear. Jesus of Nazareth says, make decisions based on faith, for God never honors fear but he always honors faith. Jesus of Orange County says, look out for number one and you’re number one. Jesus of Nazareth says look to the things of God for you are my bond servant, bound by the bond of love. You are servants of whom you obey, whether sin unto death or the sprit of God unto eternal life.

In a counseling session, two women had approached Pete and said, “We know that divorcing our husbands has no biblical grounds, but we don’t believe that God wants us to be miserable for the rest of our lives.” Pete responded, “Being miserable is your own choice. You both took vows before God and men to be married to your husbands and to be faithful until death do you part. God never said that life would be without pain, trials, tribulation and heartache, especially in marriage. If you’re miserable, then you are miserable because you have forsaken God and you have not learned patience for God to deliver you. Through tribulation you will learn endurance… true godly character, refined by God’s testing and trial. Then you will discover that Joy is not the absence of pain but the presence of the Lord. If you forsake your marriage vows before God, you will still be miserable when you follow through with your divorce.”

Jesus of the OC wants to be politically correct. Jesus of Nazareth wants to be biblically correct. Jesus of the OC says, Jesus is my guide. Jesus of Nazareth says, Jesus is my Lord. Jesus of the OC says truth is relative. Jesus of Nazareth says truth is absolute. Jesus of Orange County says peace depends on circumstances. Jesus of Nazareth says that my circumstances are working out for the good of the gospel. Therefore, be anxious for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God… and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The peace of God is not dependent on circumstance but upon the presence of Christ.

Jesus of the OC says follow me and you will have no pain. Jesus of Nazareth says, in this life, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. Jesus of Orange County says study the Bible to know it better. Jesus of Nazareth says study the word for the renewing your mind that you will be transformed that you may prove what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.

1 Corinthians 15:33 says, be not deceived, bad company corrupts good morals. You’re most like those with whom you choose to associate. We are called to the church the body of Christ so that we can link together with likeminded men in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

God will not strive with America… The choice is truth or consequences. If God removes his hand of blessing and protection from this land because of the nation’s unbelief, he is preparing the hearts of his men of God for such a time as this. Despite the brokenness of this fallen world, our hope is not in our nation but in the country of our new birth for we are born-again citizens of heaven.

God doesn’t call the qualified and equipped. He qualifies and equips the called. The qualification and the equipment is the power of his Holy Spirit. God did not call us to deliver the message, but to be the message… to be about our Father’s business. Our father’s business is to be the salt of the earth… to be witness of the truth, the message of salvation to reconcile God’s people back to God through our Lord Jesus Christ… this is our mission and our great commission: to go give ‘em Heaven…

…that together we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Pete McKenzie 4:51
all right good see you here this morning. We’re going through the Beatitudes, we’re getting to the near the end of them. We’ve been through some challenging stuff, you know, the bad know, you’ll never be tested more than the Beatitudes. As far as our behavior and really understanding what we have been given in the kingdom of God and as being God’s man. We started out and it’s always good to review and to track ourselves. We start out with the important spirit. And we’ve said all along that one of the Beatitudes follows the other and without the previous ones, the one that you come to which we’re coming to today. blesser The pleat peacemakers you don’t just start being a peacemaker, some has to go on in your heart before you’re going to get to a place where you’re a man of peace. Because there’s a lot of guys of war today. There’s a lot of fighting us. There’s a lot of anger and bitterness that has to be settled. God has to be able to raise his hand in our hearts and say, peace be still God takes the fight out of us. And it’s the wrong kind of fight. There is a good fight where Paul says, I fought the good fight. But we’re not talking about that fight. We’re talking about the fight in US causes dis peace. This space in our own hearts, this space with us and others. We started with Blessed are the poor in spirit bless are those who realize they have nothing to offer God. That God chose me I didn’t choose him that there’s nothing in me that he needed. But by His grace, he came and saved me. Bless those who mourn, who were crushed over their sin, who are sad and mournful that their sin cos Jesus have to go to the cross, and God have to pay such a great price to buy me back, to redeem me to deliver me for myself. blessing to the make and the humble. Everything starts with making humble but you don’t become meek and humble. Unless you’ve been poor in spirit, you realize you’re empty and have nothing to offer. And then you’re mourning over that. And then you can get to a place of humility. And then, if you ever going to get to a place of hunger, nine thirsting for righteousness, which is a fourth beatitude you have to come through the first three, you don’t just wake up one morning and hunger and thirst for righteousness. You’ve seen what you’re like, you know your sin. You’ve mourned over your sin, you’ve repented. And then you’ve become humble. And at that point, you start saying, you know, I want to be right with God, I don’t want to live that life again. I want God’s righteousness, I want to act like he acts and do what he does. I want to be filled with his spirit. I’m tired of the war with everybody, and need to be a peacemaker. But even before we get to be a peacemaker, we have to be merciful. See, once we started hungering and thirsting for righteousness, we start seeing people differently. When I came to know Jesus Christ, I started seeing you differently, and I needed to see you differently. Now I can look at you and you can look at me and we can see all the fall the falseness, we can see all the problems, we can see all the

Unknown Speaker 8:24
things that we do that are not attractive. We can see all our faults. We can see ourselves and we can see others in that regard. But when we come to Christ, we start seeing people differently. When Jesus hung on the cross, He showed us how to see people differently. The man who put nails in his feet and his hands and thorns on his head. He saw him differently. And the way we know he saw him differently, as he said, Father, forgive them. He prayed for them. And the reason they prayed for them, he said, forgive them because they know not what they do. When’s the last time you had someone that would became your enemy? Whether you were theirs or not. And you prayed and said, Father, forgive them? They don’t know what they’re doing. You’ve been received mercy. Mercy is God saw that we had a problem and he came to solve it. Grace is unmerited favor. So God gave us mercy. What we deserved was judgment. But God chose to extend mercy to us. And then once we had mercy, then we have pure and heart. You get to that place where your motives are good. You’re you don’t have ill motives. You don’t do things for selfish ambition. But you do things for the glory of God and the good and the blessing of others. blesses are the pure in heart. They keep your heart pure that confessed his sin on a regular basis. It’s not that we’re never going to sin again. Once we come to know Jesus Christ, it’s we keep our hearts pure along the way and God gives us a power in the West. To do that, then once we achieve that place of being poor at heart, then we can say, I want to be a peacemaker. I want peace everywhere I go I’m tired of all the fights and brokenness and division and divorces and separations and anger and bitterness and vengefulness. It goes on in the world and then our hearts and God wants to raise his hand in our hearts and say Peace Be still. That’s what we’re talking about today. You know, there are wars all over in every direction. We’ll talk about that a little bit. Nature reveals when we look at nature reveals how powerless we are been noticing hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, fires. And we just feel so helpless. I remember my friend feel Hanlon, they were fighting a fire a few couple of years ago and I guess they had the same thing going this year. And they got they Captain got to the top of the hill and he looked down at the fire and he just called his man away said come away get as far away as you can. We can’t fight this fire. 50 feet high flames eating out homes and neighborhoods. He said we there’s nothing we can do against Stop it. Just get away from it. The law reveals our powerlessness. God gave us a 10 commandments to show us we couldn’t keep it. We’re powerless trying to live the Christian life in our own power. Trying to be poor in spirit, trying to be merciful and pure at heart. You can’t get there from here. Only Christ in you can get you there. That’s the only way we can live this life. Marriage reveals our powerless we are Can I get an amen from the congregation trying to live too powerful centers of self assertion trying to live together and have peace. And so we find out how powerless we are trying to live the Christian life apart from the Spirit of God shows us how powerless we are. And that’s how I came to Christ. I don’t know how you came to Christ. But I tried to keep the rules. I tried to be a good guy. But there was a bad guy in me that wouldn’t let me go. There was a bad guy and me that things I knew I shouldn’t do. I did do. Things I knew I should do I didn’t want to do. And there was that guy and me. And God had to change that. God had to give me new life. He had to forgive me. He had to give me grace. He had to show me mercy. He had to deliver me and redeem me. And he did that. He bought me with a price. And it costs is him his son and his son his life.

Unknown Speaker 13:01
So when Jesus came, he was establishing a totally new kingdom. And that really shocked the Pharisees and the scribes in religious leaders, because they were looking for Messiah, and everybody was saying this must be the Messiah. And they want him to be their king. And after he fed 5000 men and who knows how many women and children with a few fishes and loaves, they said, This must be him. They said they are King and he said, My kingdom is not of this world. And he grabbed in they’ve tried to force him to be their king. And he would have none of it. He had another kingdom is the kingdom This world is not understand this world is not No. And if you’ve been born again, you’ve been born into a new kingdom. The challenge of our lives is living our lives out in that new kingdom. And you find out we can’t do it apart from Jesus Christ apart from the Holy Spirit in our heart. There’s no way we can live this life that the Sermon on the Mount in chapters five, six and seven of Matthew are showing us and revealing to us. Only a new man can live this life in the new kingdom. You know, the Jews thought the Messiah would be a militaristic and nationalistic and materialistic King, that he would come in and he would take the Romans and he would run the Romans out and then he had established the Jewish nation is the greatest nation in the world. What the Nazis used to call the conquering master race. Blessed are the peacemakers. Why, for they shall we call the children of God. Second Corinthians five says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ in gay The ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against him. He was committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we’re ambassadors for Christ is no God, we’re making an appeal through us. So we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Well, that’s what God was doing in Christ. He was making peace between man and God. And he did that by sending his son to the cross. to reconcile means to restore to friendship or harmony, the harmony and friendship had been broken in the garden, man was now a sinful man. And that has been passed along from generation to generation. So sin entered the heart of man, and it broke fellowship with God. It means to settle a resolve to cause to submit or accept something that is unpleasant. You know, God, if you’re given God permission to put anything in, or take anything out of your life, if whatever he wants, because when you go give God permission, you’re at peace with whatever he does. He can put anything in, he can take anything out. But you accept it, because the sovereignty of God, because you’ve decided that you own his will, not your will. That you want his glory, not your glory. So you accept it and accept means to receive something willingly, is God put anything in your life lately you didn’t want, and you received it willingly. Because God had a purpose in sending it. God had a purpose in giving you this trial, this difficulty, and you received it willingly. Or maybe you’ve been grumbling and complaining about it, and why more, and I’ve had enough. And when you get to the place of having enough, God can take you further, but you can’t get there by yourself. God can give you the power to endure, to approve off. If you approve, do something God took out of your life that you wanted, and you didn’t want to lose, but he took it. And you approved said, God, your will be done. You gave the Lord gives a load Lord takes away blessed it’d be the name of the Lord. See, that’s the kingdom of God came to establish in your heart in mind. It’s not just a numbers kingdom. It’s a personal kingdom that established in our hearts and our lives. It makes us different people of any man’s in Christ. He’s a new creature. He’s not the same guy anymore. He’s been born of a new spirit. He’s a member of a new kingdom. And that’s the kingdom of God that’s born in our hearts. It means to endure without protest or reaction. I hear a lot of protests going on today. And we talked and Bill mentioned and we prayed about it this morning, our prayer time, about our freedoms. We’ve had a great run in America freedoms, almost to the point where being intoxicated by it,

Unknown Speaker 18:19
and we had to fight for those freedoms. And we’ve been given inalienable rights. But there’s never been a democracy or a form of democracy that’s been able to last. They come and they go, countries come and go, civilizations come and go. And we’ve been given a great run, the greatest run of any country, a nation is that ever is been known in the history of the world. But we see those things slipping away those things we fought for and bled for on battlefields. We start taking them for granted, we start thinking that we have rights. And we have to be reminded that any fool can claim his rights in any Dame and make sure he gets some rights or privileges are they really rights. And we’re fighting in courts, and we’re fighting the battle to try to maintain our rights and our freedoms, and that’s a good fight. It’s not the best fight. But it’s a fight worth fighting. But we have to fight him with spiritual weapons when we know Christ. So we fight a good fight. And the good fight is a fight of mercy and being pure of heart and being a peacemaker. And learning what it means to make peace. make peace with reality. That’s one of my favorite phrases. Because the reality is, we’re winning some battles, but the wars looking difficult. We may not win this war, we may be able to preserve our rights in our Constitution and our freedoms. But as Bill was saying, No man can take away my freedom. I have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to carry a gun, if I want to find get through all the licensing you got to go through today. We have a lot of freedoms. But those freedoms can be taken away, but they can never take away my freedom in Christ, the truth that sets me free. And when that man crawl through his own blood to kiss a fee to the torture that had caused him to believe that was freedom. When you turn the other cheek and go the second mile, that’s freedom. When you bless those who persecute you, you’re a free man. What do you free from you’re free from bitterness and anger and resentment. You’re not so sensitive, you’re not so easily offended. You have a tender heart and a tough skin, rather than the other way around. You can be a peacemaker, you can be a peacemaker has to be, make sure he’s got all things settled with the Prince of Peace. You can’t be a peacemaker, if you don’t know the Prince of Peace. Or you can have a little peace and you got peace here and there. But you can’t have that peace that surpasses all comprehension. Unless you’re full of the Prince of Peace, unless he’s feeling your heart, and doing what only He can do in your heart. And as I said earlier, he takes a fight out of you, sometimes, and we’ve talked about grace in truth. Jesus didn’t come just full of grace. He didn’t come just full of truth. He came full of grace and truth. You’ll never be a peacemaker, if all you have is grace. Because if you’re if all you have is grace, but you don’t have truth, people going to run over you. It’ll cause this. You to be upset with each other. If all you have is truth, people will run away from you because you’re hammering them with the truth, even to the point of maybe being legalistic and hard and hard taskmaster, if you will. And the only way that we’re going to be peacemakers in that regard is we have grace and truth that we can exercise truth, but we do it with grace, or we can exercise grace, but we do it with truth. And I found in my life that I can have grace, without truth. And I can have truth without grace. But I cannot have grace and truth without the Holy Spirit. He’s only he can balance grace and truth. Only he can give me the grace, I need to deal with the people I have to deal with and the issues I have to deal with. But I want to deal with you with grace. But there has to be truth that comes in with the grace, the truth of what’s going on here. What’s like, what’s God trying to do in my life? What’s he trying to do in your life? What’s he trying to teach us through these challenges that we’re facing. And so he came to establish in our hearts. Something that softens the heart heart. That’s what peace makers have.

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Their heart has been softened. It quiets the trouble. So it makes us sensitive to the needs of others. And makes you forget about yourself. That’s what peacemakers have to do. You have to come to the place where I’m crucified with Christ. It’s not about me. You have to make peace with those things that are realities in life that life is hard. You’ll never be a peacemaker. If you think you’re everything is supposed to be easy. Everything’s supposed to be come your way. You’re not supposed to have any pain, any difficulty, any disappointments, you’ll never be a peacemaker. If you don’t know that, in a fallen world, life is hard you go you will have tribulation, you accept that. You understand that? You can be at peace with that. And then you understand that life is not about you. And I’ve told you many times when we found out we had a brain tumor.

Pete McKenzie 24:13
And God said it’s not about you. This is about me and my glory. It’s about you.

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showing people how to respond and make it your finest hour. So it’s not about you and Susan, it felt like it was about steel feels like it was about it sometimes about me and Susan. But God said it’s not about you guys, it’s about my glory. It’s like he used Jesus to bring glory to himself. He emptied himself and took the form of a bondservant being made in the likeness of a man. And he used him to glorify himself by hanging out across to settle things between God and man to make a pathway to freedom and peace in life everlasting. And then you got to Understand you’re not in control. You’ll never be a peacemaker. If you think you got to control everything. And some people are control freaks as we call them. But only the Holy Spirit can control us in a way that brings peace. And you want to be controlled to a place of peace, but to be controlled to a place of peace, you have to give up control. You have to say, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. Not my way, but your way. For he said in Psalm 55, I mean, as a 55, he said, My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. You need my thoughts in my ways. You need to be in my word, to get to get my thoughts you need to be in my presence, be in my presence, you need to be in my word, to be in my word, you need to be in prayer, and a man of prayer. That’s where it all comes from. Now I’m reminding you of the saints, because they’re not things you haven’t heard before. The things we need to be reminded of the things that we need to shape up, be said, Get it out of low gear, spiritually, these are things we have to deal with, and you’ll never going to be a missionary for Christ’s ambassador for Christ, a representative of Christ. You’re never gonna see that happen if you’re not making peace with these realities. And then finally, the last reality is I’m gonna die. I have a shelf life. God’s got a book and everything’s written in it, and I had a birthdate and I’ve got a death date. I don’t know the death date needed to you. But it’s coming. And so I make peace with that reality. I’m not going to be here forever. I need to live my life a legacy. I need to live my life in such a way that people will see my good works and glorify the Father in heaven. That’s what Jesus said right after the Beatitudes. soon as he got to the Beatitudes, he said, You’re the light of the world. Let your light shine in such a way that you people will see your good works and glorify You know, not glorify you. That’s what we think. But glorify your Father in heaven. That’s why you live your life. So you make every decision is this going to glorify God or glorify me? What are my motives? What do I my Why am I doing what I’m doing? Whose glory Am I seeking? Whose honor am I? seeking?

Pete McKenzie 27:31
Whose good am I seeking? Matthew five, you’ve heard it said you’ll love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

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But let me tell you what I say. Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. So that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good in sins, rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love someone who loves you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collectors do that? If you agree it only your brothers. What do you do more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same. He’s called us in a new kingdom to a new lifestyle. And that lifestyle is to love those who don’t love you. To bless those who wish you well. To help them, serve them. honored man, because they’re children of God in their last in there. Don’t know what they’re doing. Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. You see them differently. You want to be a blessing. The judgment in the vengefulness in the disruption doesn’t mean you love what they do. But you love them. You’ve been like them. You were there yourself. How can Jesus forgive a man that owes him 10,000 in his in his parable, and then not forget, and then he goes out and doesn’t forgive the god owes him $10 we’ve been forgiven everything. And God expects us to be forgiving and peacemakers. He expects us to make peace with people. Maybe they won’t be peaceful with us, but we can be peaceful with them. We can be at peace with them. And it really affects us physically. When you’re not at peace with others. When you’re dis peace. When you’re anxious. You’re angry, you’re bitter, you’re resentful. It affects your body, it tears you down. Most of our problems are stress related anger related most of our physical problems and relational problems. It just tears your body down yeah starts having problems your nervous system, your immune system, it always starts disintegrating because you’re not healthy inside. There’s stress on all the nerves in the blood vessels and and they start breaking down and we have all the illnesses, then you’re gonna have illness if you the greatest masterpiece. But you’re gonna have more illness, you’re gonna have more broken relationships, broken bodies, if you haven’t made peace with reality, and that peace with reality, as God has called us, to be peacemakers, to be merciful. God has given us the privilege of being pure at heart. But we got all these wars and rumors of wars. And that’s the days that we’re living in. In Matthew 24. We they say, what would be the signs of your coming? He said, Well, there’s gonna be wars and rumors of war. Well, there’s always been wars and rumors, ever since the Garden of Eden. But there’s going to be more wars, the whole world would be at war. And that’s what we see unfolding before our very eyes. You look in any direction. And allies, they’re not going to be allies anymore, they’re going to be enemies. And we’ll be enemies of each other, will be like swarms of ants, fire ants fighting each other, running in all directions, chaos, disruption, law and order breaking down. We see that happening every day in our country. And so it was prophesied that when you’re not going to be a peacemaker, these are the things that are gonna happen. And the world will not be at peace. But you can be the world not the world is going to steal your freedoms, but you can still be free. These things don’t last, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God lasts forever. We got to give ourselves to things in eternal, we got to fight our battles with with weapons that are spiritual. And that’s a hard thing for a carnal, worldly, cultural Christian. He can’t fight battles with spiritual weapons, he’s still using worldly weapons to fight the battles. And he can’t win them. He’ll win a few but lose the war. And so God has called us to a kingdom that requires the sayings. But if you’re going to be a peacemaker, you got to view every situation in light of the gospel. In other words, how can I take this circumstance, this relationship and give glory to God?

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How do I see every circumstance, every trial, every difficulty, everything God puts in and takes out in light of the gospel, I can see them as attacks of the enemy, or I can see them as opportunities to glorify Christ. It’s my choice. The Evil One will always point to you to yourself. When we have relational problems, and you’re not a peacemaker, you always hear a voice that says, What about you? What about your fairness, they can’t treat you like that. If you let them get away with that, they’ll just keep doing it to you. So you have to stand up for your rights, you have to fight for yourself, you can’t let them take advantage of you. They’ll just run over you. What about you? The enemy always does that someone says something. You can’t take that they can’t get away with that. That’s not right. That’s not just that’s not fair. You’ll always appeal your right to yourself, your protection of yourself. And that’s why Paul said, I’m crucified with Christ crucified to set myself on the cross. I have a tender heart and a tough skin. I don’t see I don’t listen to attacks and neglect and people treating me the way they treat me. Maybe I brought it on myself. Maybe they treated me like that. Because something I’ve done something, I’m doing something, I’m not learning something, I won’t learn something I won’t put up with it. And being treated that way. Maybe you grew up having to fight for yourself. You had to fight for everything you got. And maybe you learn some character in that. But maybe you learned some disk character and then maybe you learned it taken up for yourself and fighting your battles with all rights and privileges and things that you have is not working. And you come to a place where you have to see everything and right in light of the gospel. Then you have to learn to speak and not speak. There’s a lot of things we say, come out of our heart. And sometimes you can listen to a guy and listen to a guy and then all of a sudden you see his real heart his real motives, what he’s really like and if And you’ll always reveal that it just takes some circumstance, some trial, some attack, some humiliation, and you see what a guy’s really like. And usually what he’s really like comes out of his mouth. James dealt with that in James three. He said, For we all stumble in many ways, if anyone does not stumble in what he says he’s a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. So also the tongue is a small part of the body. And yet it boasts of great things. Car great forests is set a flame by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire. The very world of iniquity the tongue is set among our members is that which defiles the entire body and sets fire to the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell itself. But no one contained the top. It’s a recipe for evil. It’s full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and father and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God for the same mouth comes both blessing and cursing. My brother saw this is not the way it ought to be. Surely this is not right. And so this is why we need to be pure in heart because if our heart in pure if it’s impure, if it’s full of bitterness, and anger and resentment and easily hurt and offended, it’s going to come out of our mouth. We want to hurt them the way that they’ve heard us. We want to say things to them that later we wish we hadn’t said and it’s easier to keep quiet than the makeup for what’s been said because they don’t tend to forget it. It goes in there resentment bank, they bring it up a lot. You hurt me. You never made it right. Remember when you said and we all have that in our lives, sin, our marriages, our children, sin, personal relationships. And so we have to fight that with all that we’ve got. We have to keep our heart pure. If we’re going to be peacemakers, peacemakers speak peace. They speak encouraging words into people’s lives. They don’t give tit for tat. They don’t have to out Why’s the guy be clever, more clever than him or say something that’s put down or sarcastic? That hurts.

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And they don’t forget it. They get wounded. And those wounds are hard to heal. Because to have that wound healed you have to be because you’re going to have those wounds and I’m going to have them in the not be wounded beyond repair and there are some get wounded beyond repair. They get hard hearted they get unforgiving. They get unmerciful because they haven’t been through the process. And so those are the things that we have to if we’re going to be peacemakers you have to get out of your way and look for a means in a method of making peace.

Pete McKenzie 38:11
I remember Dr. Modi’s preaching revival service. He was telling this story in England. And he got a week long service and every night there was this

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older gentleman big, stout, big mustache, white hair, big teeth, and he was smiling every night he had a different look on his face every night during the revival. And so the Modi toward the end of the week, went down to meet the guy and found out what his story was, was it such a big smile was such peace on your face. He said, What’s your story? He says, Well, I was in the army. I was a staff sergeant in India, stationed in India. They sent a young man in there, our patern he came into our barracks. And the first thing I realized about him the first night he was there, he was on his knees by his bed praying, and so we used to make fun of him. We’d make him do hard things and would give him tough jobs. Because we wanted to humiliate him, we want to humble him. We want him to quit pray and be on his knees by his bed at night. One night, he said I was out with the guys at the non comms bar. And we got drunk and we were having fun and I came smashed into the mud into the barracks. And when I got to my barracks, I was drunk because I could be but there was a young man on his knees praying by his bunk. He said, so I went over not kicked him in the ribs, and then I hit him upside the head and I left him in a little pool of blood on the floor, and I fell into my bunk and I passed out. He said, I woke up the next morning with a hangover and swung my legs over the bunk and I had my face in my hands and I looked down at my old muddy boots and they were spit shine. didn’t look like brand new. And I wondered what had happened. And I realized that young man had pulled himself off the floor and clean my boots and shined him. And I knew whatever that young man had I needed, and I came to Christ. Now I’ve been a different man’s ever since. So your pacemaker might finds a way. That’s what turning the other cheek and go in the second mile is all about, it’s finding a way to make peace between God and men and men and men. And we are ambassadors for Christ, we represent him. And we’re supposed to bring peace between us and others, in between God and others. And we’ve been given that ministry of reconciliation, of bringing harmony between man and God and man, us and man. But the best ways to make peace is pull yourself up out the floor and shine their boots. But I find most men don’t have that kind of character. Most professing Christian men are not willing to do that. It’s not their natural response. Their natural response is to claim our rights is to say you can’t treat me that way, I have to go and report them to the lieutenant, the captain platoon leader, instead of shining their boots, instead of being a servant, instead of dying to your rights, which has to happen if you’re going to be a peacemaker. Now, to close our thoughts on this, a lot of us have people in our lives, that we’re not at peace with people that we’ve heard and people that have heard us. And God would say, Go make peace. do all you can to be a peacemaker. If you need to ask forgiveness, go and ask forgiveness. If you need to make restitution, go and make restitution, and make it right. Be at peace with all men. They may not give you forgiveness, they may not want to make peace, they may not respond well. You do it anyway. And don’t expect a good response. If you get a good response. And many will who do this, then you made peace with your brother. And that’s what God has called us to be. If you go to the altar, and you show your brother has something against you go and make peace with him, and then come and offer your offering. And that’s a hard thing. And that’s why CS Lewis says if you’re looking for a religion that will make you comfortable, I don’t suggest Christianity make you uncomfortable. you’re uncomfortable with me saying this, you’re thinking of people in your life right now that have hurt you. You need to forgive them in your heart, if no other way, maybe they died, then you can’t talk to them. But you forgive them in your heart.

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And maybe they’re still around. I know brothers who haven’t talked in over 10 years.

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They had a falling out. And I’m trying to be a peacemaker between them. But it’s not working at this point. They’re unforgiving. They’re hurt. It turns into bitterness in and then separation and loneliness. That’s what the devil always does. And we have to shake free from him and be be God’s peacemakers in our own personal lives. And then as ambassadors for Christ, sharing the gospel with people and using words if necessary, crawl through the blood, shine the boots, forgive, they could do a bad deed you followed up with a good day. Yep, that guy in front of you be successful. You’ve been taken advantage of help him be successful. encourage him. That’s a new kingdom living. That’s what Jesus lived on the in demonstrated on the cross. And if we can’t do that, don’t call yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ. You’re hurting his reputation. Don’t have all kinds of broken relationships in your life, that you’re not doing everything you can do to make them right. God’s called us up higher. That’s what the Beatitudes is all about. This is a new kingdom living. This is a new character and attitude. This is a new lifestyle. And God’s calling you to that. He’s calling me to that. And there’s never been a better time in the history of this country or maybe the world where pacemakers are more needed. peacemakers, in marriages, peacemakers in businesses, peacemakers who have been having their rights and their privileges in their constitutional freedoms taken away. How are we going to respond? Oh, we got to claim our constitutional rights. We can do that. And There’s nothing necessarily wrong and doing that but that’s not the weapons are gonna win God’s war. weapons or when God’s war shining boots, forgiving go into second mile blessing those who persecute you praying for your enemies. Let’s pray right now that God would give us that heart. And Father, we do pray we thank you for being the God who hung on a cross and gave us the freedom and the power not only to receive what you’ve given us that become what you’ve given us, that we could be peacemakers in the world today. There we go and leave our gift at the altar and make peace wherever peace needs to be. But first you have to settle it in our hearts. We have to be peacemakers. We have to receive the peace you’ve given us in our freedom. To be Christians today, they’ll be forgiven, be given the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the fellowship of the brethren. And then you’ve given us the ministry of reconciliation help us do that today. Help us glorify you help us data ourselves in a way that we live for Your glory and for others. And then one day we’ll hear you say well done good and faithful servant and will give you all the glory through all eternity because you are worthy and you’re able and we do that in Jesus name And all God’s men said Amen. Give them heaven guys

Blessed are the Peacemakers

The beatitudes are Jesus’ beautiful attitudes. The beautiful thing about attitudes is that attitudes are a choice. We’re in control of our attitudes. The world thinks that we’re victims of the world’s negative attitudes. However, we’re not victims…. God gives us the power to control our hearts. This is why keeping our hearts with all diligence is a command. Then when we keep our hearts with all diligence, the blessing of God will pour out of it.

Many people leave broken relationships in their wake. This is because of the sin nature we all inherited from Adam’s original sin. In Genesis, there was a murderer who wiped out a quarter of the world’s population. His name was Cain and the Bible says he was “of that wicked one.” His heart of hatred was influenced by the devil whose evil spirit of wrath, anger, malice, jealousy and rage resulted in murder. According to 1 John 3:12, “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”

The Old Testament law shows us that we’re powerless in our sin nature to keep the letter of the law. It shows us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God’s institution of marriage shows us that in our own ability, we cannot reconcile our hearts with our spouse. In order to reconcile, we must meet each other at the foot of the cross. Jesus Christ is the solution to irreconcilable differences. There is no peace without the prince of Peace.

Jesus said to the multitude who tried to elect him as their king, That’s not why I’m here. The children of Israel had read the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. They thought that their Saviour would be a political messiah to deliver them from the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. However, Jesus said, my peace is not of this world….. He said, “my peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as this world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” According to 2 Corinthians 5, God has sent his ambassadors to deliver a peace treaty from the kingdom of heaven… we who are born again of His spirit are his ambassadors sent by our Sovreign Lord to deliver God’s treaty to a fallen world. He has given us the word of reconciliation and committed to us the ministry of reconciliation to reconcile God’s people back to God through his son Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for their sins.

Once upon a time, the devil came down the path with a cart full of men. From the other direction came the Lord God. The Lord said, what have you there? The devil said, a cart full of men. The Lord said, how did you catch them? He said by drugs, sex, pride, money, sensuality and the love of the world. God said, how much would it cost for me to buy them from you? Name your price. The devil said, it would cost you your only begotten son whom you love with all your heart.

If we’re to be called the children of God, then God must first soften our hearts. As Oswald Chambers said, thank God for breaking our hearts for what breaks his. Those who approach the Lord must come to Him with a heart broken of pride, a heart filled with meekness and humility.

In the last beatitude Jesus said, blessed are they who are persecuted for my name’s sake…. for when they revile you and persecute you for my sake, the world will know that you belong to Jesus Christ. By persecution, the world will know for whom you stand… that you count not your life dear, save for the witness of your Father in heaven.

In John 13 Jesus said, a new commandment give I you, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. The love of Christ is different from the love of this world. He loved us first… for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. It’s only by God’s grace and mercy that he has given us the capacity to love him in return and to love one another with the love wherewith Christ loved us.

The world thought that the Messiah would come to defeat the world’s armies. Jesus could have annihilated the evil empire… He said, know ye not that I have twelve legions of angels, 72,000 at my command? Only one mighty angel put the armies of the Old Testament to flight. However, Jesus said I did not come to bring a sword but to bring peace. Wars are the result of sin…. there will be in the last days wars and rumors of wars. This is the nature of man ever since Cain murdered his brother Abel.

The solution to war is peace. True peace is only through the Prince of Peace. Peace is the result of reconciliation… of bring together that which has been separated. Jesus Christ himself is the one who reconciles, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Through the trials of life, when we lose the things that the world holds dear, our godly response will be a testimony to the world… it will show them the true heart of a man of God. Jesus said, how will you respond when you are persecuted, shamed, ridiculed, and cast down? Either we will be influenced by the vengeful attitudes of this world or we will control our attitude to align with God’s beautiful attitudes. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal…of the flesh, but spiritual to the pulling down of spiritual strongholds. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

The devil will distract us to think of ourselves and our own pride, arrogance, and self aggrandizement instead of thinking about God and his grace, mercy, and love. The devil says, it’s all about you… you’ve been victimized and you deserve vindication and retribution. He says, Your human right is your right not to be offended. However, Jesus said, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and despitefully use you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, For great is your reward in heaven.

Jesus, while being reviled he did not revile, being persecuted he did not persecute, but instead he trusted himself to his Father who judges all things righteously. Because Jesus humbled himself unto death for our redemption, one day, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

God is in heaven thou upon earth… therefore let your words be few. And let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying so that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Hurting people hurt others…. Saul himself was zealous to hunt down Christians and commit them to prison. That’s when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and said, Saul, why are you persecuting me? In this life changing encounter with the risen Christ, Saul turned his heart around and repented… he did an about-face. He turned from persecuting Jesus to confessing Jesus is Lord.

When the Holy Spirit is allowed to work within you, God will give you the words to bless others. God has called us to be peacemakers… He has given us the ministry of reconciliation and committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Blessed are the peacemakers. Jesus Christ is the one who makes peace by reconciling our hearts with God’s heart…. therefore we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

In other words… Go give ‘em heaven!
… that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Each of the eight Beatitudes builds on the preceding Godly attitude. The next to last beatitude says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. The beatitudes leading up to this one are the attitudes of heart to approach God’s throne of grace with a broken heart of meekness and humility.

We need to become poor of spirit, mourning over our sin nature, with meekness to receive His instruction, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Then we will begin to see things differently from a pure heart, after we have been purified through the trials and tribulation of God’s refining fire. Through patience and perseverance we will understand his loving kindness and tender mercy. Others will know the purity of our hearts when we reflect God’s mercy by giving mercy to those who have wronged us.

Then we will be able to confess Jesus is Lord… that we are saved by his grace. In accepting his gracious gift of salvation, Jesus said, my peace I leave with you… Peace is the result of reconciliation. He reconciles our heart with God’s heart. We have peace with God because there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

We all contend with the nature of sin that we inherited from Adam’s fall. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day tried to approach God in their own self righteousness. They expected God to send a political messiah to deliver them from the oppression of earthly rulers. However, Jesus said, that’s not why I’m here. They thought their Messiah would establish a new kingdom for the children of Israel upon earth… that only Israel deserved a righteous king.

However According to 2 Corinthians 5, God has given his children who are born again of God’s spirit the ministry of reconciliation. After God poured out his Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond, nor freed man, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Unto those who are born again, God has given the ministry of reconciliation and committed unto them the word of reconciliation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To reconcile means to put back together that which has been separated. Sin separates our heart from God’s heart. Only Jesus Chrsit can reconcile our hearts with God. He will make of Twain one new man. Peace is the result of reconciliation…. in Christ we are made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus Christ is the one who intercedes on our behalf. For he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

In the United States of America, we value our freedoms. Our nation was founded on Godly principles as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The reason our nation was founded was to secure our unalienable God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…. blessedness according to the truth of God and his word.

The freedom we have in Christ is according to Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (of the Old Testament Law.)” Some think that liberty means license to “do what I fool please.” However, true liberty is not in pleasing ourselves but in delighting ourselves in the Lord and pleasing him from a heart of reverence, respect and love. Then when we love God above all, we will not use liberty as an occasion to sin, but to manifest the love of God by serving one another.

It’s a hard lesson to learn that this life is not about me. God will break our hearts for what breaks his. He will tenderize our hearts through the trials and tribulations… the pressures of this world. For tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

When we’re softened through the affliction of this world, we come to realize that it’s not about us, it’s about Him… In Isaiah 55 God said to his prophet, for my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts… For as high as the heavens are above the earth so much higher are my thoughts than your thoughts and my ways than your ways.

After Jesus delivered his message about the beatitudes he said, I’m here to seek the glory of my Father… As followers of Jesus Christ we seek no glory for ourselves. Our blessing is to glorify our Father in Heaven.

Jesus said, A new command I give you… that you love one another. If you only love those who are good to you, what good is that? Don’t even the sinners and the tax collectors do that? How can you who have been forgiven a lifetime’s worth of sin, not forgive others?

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Without forgiving others, our hearts will be full of pride, vengeance, and anger. We will keep a resentment bank against those who have wronged us. Nurturing anger, vengeance, and resentment is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person will suffer the poisonous effects. However Jesus Christ is the one who gives us peace. When we come to him, he will cleanse our heart from all malice, strife, contention, and evil attitudes toward those who have wronged us. The love of God covers a multitude of sins. Then we will realize that I have found the enemy and he is me.

Out of the heart, the mouth speaketh. James says the tongue is a little member that steers the whole body… The tongue is an evil fire set ablaze by the flames of hell itself. Your tongue influences your heart. Then out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Those who grumble, condemn, complain and speak evil reveal the contents of their evil hearts.

DL Moody preached a revival and at each day’s revival service, there was a distinguished gentleman sitting on the front row whose praise and worship lit up his face… his face was radiant with the love of God. DL Moody approached the man and said, why are you always so joyful? The man explained, I used to be a staff seargeant in the British Army. I was assigned to a unit in India. I lived a hard life of drinking and carousing. One night I stumbled into the barracks angry and drunk. In a rage, I noticed a soldier asleep in his bunk. I knew this man was a Christian and I hated him because he reminded me of everything I wasn’t. I dragged him out of his bunk, beat him and then kicked him unconscious. Then I stumbled into my bunk and passed out.

When I opened my eyes the next morning the first thing I saw was my boots spit-shined at the foot of my bed. Then I noticed a trail of blood from the place where I had kicked the soldier unconscious the night before. That’s when I realized he had crawled through his own blood to spit shine my muddy bloody boots. That’s when I realized, whatever that soldier has, I want it. I did an about-face, God changed my life, and have rejoiced in the Lord ever since.

Because of Jesus’s supreme sacrifice we can do an about face. When we change from our own selfish desires and make Jesus Lord of our lives and believe that God raised him from the dead, we will have peace with God. Jesus said, My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.

As ambassadors for Christ, blessed are the peacemakers who deliver God’s peace treaty through our Lord Jesus Christ…

…That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace,
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Entering the Lord’s Presence

Psalm 84 is about entering into the presence of God. Unless God’s people enter into the house of the Lord according to His terms, they that build the house build it in vain.

Psalm 84 is a cross reference to Numbers 16 about the sons of Korah who rebelled against Moses, God’s prophet. When Moses confronted them about their murmurings and disputing, the sons of Koreh were swallowed up by a earthquake along with a number of the children of Israel who had risen up against God’s prophet and the Word of the Lord. God also allowed a plague to destroy the unbelievers in the ranks of the house of Israel.

Psalm 84 makes reference to the sons of Koreh when were rejected because of their earthly lineage… the curse that had followed their tribe from generation to generation.

According to Psalm 84:

1 HOW amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.”
6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

In 4M men’s groups we learn that prayer is the way to align our hearts in a vertical relationship with God. Corporate prayer is the way to collectively bind our hearts together in unity of purpose as members in the body of Christ. Praying together builds the dwelling place of the most High for we are collective God’s temple… His dwelling place.

Christianity is God’s rescue plan to deliver desperate men. When men are desperate and wondering how they will provide for food, shelter, and clothing, God will meet his men in their moment of need. It’s not the things of this world that meet our needs, it’s the Lord. He is our Jehovah Jireh. He is our supply, our portion, our allotment, our all in all.

We’re are instructed to keep and guard our heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. The eye gate protects our heart. What is it that you look at and regard longingly? If thy eye be single, with singleness of mind, the whole body will be flooded with the light of the Word of God. The eyelid protects the eye… we need to condition our eyelids to protect us from being distracted from the baubles that the world dangles in front of our eyes.

The epistles say, grieve not the Holy Spirit. As the deer longs for streams of water, Lord I long for you. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled. Jesus Christ is the bread of life… he is the fountain of living waters. He who drinks from the water of life shall never thirst.

As the darkness of the world increases, we need to approach the presence of God. Repentance means to turn from sin, the missing of the mark, and unto the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. When we forsake our pride and approach his throne of grace with meekness and humility then God will welcome us into his presence.

According to verse 3, Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

God created the sparrow with an instinct to return home. Sparrows are called home because God has created a homing instinct in the depth of their beings. This is our prayer, that we would develop a homing instinct to be drawn unto the Lord.

As we God’s people pass through the the valley of the shadow of death, the valley of pain and guilt and shame, we can turn aside from the darkness and destruction and into the presence of the Lord. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

The spirit of God in Christ in us is his homing spirit in our hearts. Without his Holy Spirit, those who attempt to enter into God’s presence are just “playing church.” Home is where the heart is.. When our heart is at home with the Lord, then we’re never alone… for Jesus. Said, take heed and beware of covetousness, for I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Therefore forsake the terrestrial to approach the celestial.

According to Psalm 84 verses 6 and 7, “Who passing through the valley of Baca (tears) make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.”

Psalm 56:8-10 says, “put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me. In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.”

What does it mean to put thou my tears in a bottle? An ancient belief in biblical times was to collect tears in a bottle that were shed when moved with compassion for God and in service to God and His people. These righteous tears were an individual’s most prized possession. They were buried with the person at death. People believed that these tears would be weighed to determine rewards after death as an indication of a life of compassion for God and his righteousness. They believed that their tears in the bottle along with their names written in thy book are the record of their compassion and service to God.

In Luke 7:37-38, “And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.” She took her most prized possession, her righteous tears, and poured them on Jesus’ feet, wiping them with her hair. Then she poured precious perfumed ointment on his feet. This is an indication that she sacrificed everything she held precious in service to her Lord. She wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair which was considered a woman’s crowning glory. This was an act of extreme humility for her Lord and Master. At the feet of Jesus, in humility, all my trophies at last I lay down….

Psalm 118 says the Lord is our refuge and strength. When our own strength fails and we’re at the end of our ropes, thy strength is made perfect in my weakness, thy grace is sufficient for me.

The blessings in Psalm 84 start with verses 4 and 5: Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.: The blessing in Verse 12 says: “O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.”

God empowers us with his Holy Spirit to work within us to will and to do of His good pleasure as we delight in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding. Jesus Christ is the solution to all of the problems of life. In the throes of addiction, He’s not the 12-step program…. he is the one step program. As we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

…. That we mean ever live to the praise of the glory of God’s grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

The beatitudes are attitudes attuned to walking in fellowship with God. You can choose a blessed attitude by focusing on the things of the kingdom of God. Blessed attitudes are diametrically opposed to the World’s attitudes. The nature of our fallen flesh that we inherited from Adam revels in the attitudes of this world. However, What the world considers blessings are the opposite of what Jesus defines as God’s blessings. Therefore Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. The world doesn’t consider poverty a blessing. However until we empty ourselves of our own prideful spirits, God cannot fill us with his holy spirt. Without the spirit of God in Christ, we cannot receive or understand the things of the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The comfort is in the gift of God’s Holy Spirit… the gift of the new birth we received when we were saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Jesus said, I am the bread of life and I am the fountain of living waters. For Jesus Christ who was without sin became the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. In him we’re sanctified…set apart, fit for the purpose for which God designed us with a heart of Christ in us the hope of glory.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The meek are eager to seek God’s instruction and humble to receive the word of God with a heart of joy and rejoicing. With a heart of meekness, a Roman centurion approached Jesus and said, my little daughter is sick and near unto death. Jesus said, I’ll come heal her. The centurion said, I am a man of authority. I command men and they obey my words. You are a man of authority. Just say the word and she will be healed. Jesus marveled at the centurion’s believing. He said, I have not see such faith, no not in Israel. Meekness in believing is the condition to receive the promises of God.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Loving kindness and tender mercy are the very nature of God himself. His steadfast love endureth forever.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. A heart purified by God’s righteous payment of his son’s sinless life on our behalf is blessed by the things of the spirit of God. We even glory in tribulation because God purifies our hearts through trial and testing. Chuck Smith said, God will deliver us through the fire, in the fire, or by the fire. Proverbs says the crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, but God tries and purifies the heart.

The Pharisees in the time of Jesus thought that they were justified by keeping their interpretation of the Old Testament law. They thought they alone were righteous and that everyone else was condemned because they failed to keep their Pharisaical laws. Jesus reproved them… they were proud, arrogant, judgmental and unrepentant. In Mark 7:5-7 he said to the leaders of the Pharisees, “Well hath Esaias (Isaiah) prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

It’s important to take a “check-up from the neck up”…. how’s your walk with God? We’re all products of our environment… of our own intellect and of our secular educations. We’re most like the people with whom we choose to associate, including our earthly families. The Pharisees were proud of their pedigree and traditions of their families. However, Jesus was not impressed by their worldly credentials. He said, Blessed are the meek… those who are humble and teachable… those who forsake worldly pride to approach their Heavenly Father with a heart of humility and love.

What does it mean to be pure in heart? A pure heart has been purified by God according to his Word…. for every word of God is pure like silver tried in the fire seven times. Therefore, try me, mold me, and make me after thy will, while I am willing yielded and still. God will purify our hearts when they are malleable and moldable from the heat of the crucible and the fire of the furnace. Through the refining of trals, he will purity our hearts to reveal His character within us..

Keeping a pure heart will cost us in a world of darkness.. For Believers, it’s not about the cost it’s about the value. What is it that you value most?

Blessed are those who have been washed in the blood of Christ. He is the lamb of God without spot and without blemish. He is our Passover lamb whose innocent blood was sacrificed in our stead so that our guilty blood would not condemn us to death without hope and without God. Because Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins, we who have been born again are clothed with His righteousness, not the filthy rags of our flesh. He is the one who cleanses and purifies our hearts. Though our sins are as scarlet… because of his perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf, we shall be white as snow.

The first and great commandment says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. When our hearts are infused with the love of God, our minds focused and fixed on the things of the spirit of God, then God will work with us and within us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

How do we cleanse and purify our hearts from sin that separates our hearts from God’s heart? The answer is in 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” The purifying and cleansing is in walking with our Lord and in fellowship with believers. Jesus Christ is the light that disinfects us from the contamination of the darkness of this world.

As we walk in His light, we are purified through the trials of life… Trials and tribulations reveal God’s character in us. Paul said, I buffet my body to keep it under subjection… I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Thank God that because he has given us the spirit of Christ in us, we can delight ourselves in the Lord… then when our delight is His delight, he will give us the desires of our heart… to walk in fellowship with the Lord. cleansed and purified in His presence…

… that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael